Driving Agility & Profit: Productizing Services in Logistics
Transforming Service Offerings into Profitable Products with Agile Product Management
in a Logistics Company
SERVICE TYPE
Product Management Transformation
COMPANY SIZE
+400 Employees
OVERVIEW
From Fragmented Services to Profitable Products
A mid-sized logistics company providing various shipping and transportation solutions across the German and Benelux region sought to elevate its offerings and increase profitability. However, their traditional service-based structure posed challenges in creating sustainable growth and streamlining operations. They realized the need to productize their services, adopting a product management approach that would allow for faster delivery of value, improved agility, and ownership among team members. This is where ExoLuz stepped in.
Challenges Faced:
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Lack of Product Strategy: The company’s services lacked a clear product vision and roadmap, making it difficult to prioritize investments and resources.
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Limited Product Ownership: Service delivery teams were not equipped with the skills or mindset to own and evolve products.
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Inefficient Processes: Without a structured product management framework, the company struggled to scale, improve time-to-market, and respond quickly to customer needs.
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No Unified Metrics: The organization lacked standardized metrics to measure the success of its services-turned-products, making it challenging to assess impact and profitability.
ExoLuz Approach
We adopted a hands-on approach to fully transform the logistics company’s service structure into product-based offerings, combining agility, product management, and strategic ownership across the organization.
1. Product Vision and Strategy Development:
We began by working directly with senior leadership and key stakeholders to align on the company’s long-term goals and translate them into clear, actionable product strategies:
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Workshops and Stakeholder Alignment: ExoLuz led a series of 5 strategy workshops with department heads to identify the most critical customer pain points, untapped market opportunities, and internal bottlenecks. Through these workshops, we developed a unified product vision for each service line and formulated a 2-year product roadmap that aligned with the company’s growth targets.
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Service to Product Mapping: We created a structured methodology to convert existing services into standalone products, complete with defined customer segments, pricing strategies, and value propositions. This step allowed the company to better market its offerings and drive profitability across multiple customer verticals.
2. Agile Implementation and Process Transformation:
ExoLuz implemented agile practices to accelerate delivery, improve team flexibility, and ensure rapid response to customer needs:
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Agile Coaching and Pilot Sprints: We introduced agile methodologies by running 3 pilot sprints across different teams. These pilots helped to identify process inefficiencies and define a scalable sprint structure. Teams adopted bi-weekly sprints, backlog grooming, and regular stand-up meetings, ensuring better prioritization of work and quicker value delivery.
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Cross-functional Teams: ExoLuz restructured the product and delivery teams to operate in a more cross-functional and collaborative manner. By embedding product managers, developers, and operational leads into unified squads, we facilitated quicker decision-making and faster iterations.
3. Training and Upskilling Product Managers:
A core aspect of the transformation was empowering the company's existing managers to transition into full-fledged product management roles:
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Hands-on Product Management Training: Over a period of 3 months, ExoLuz conducted hands-on training sessions for 20 key employees. The curriculum covered product ownership, prioritization techniques, customer-focused development, and decision-making based on data. Participants were actively involved in live product scenarios, allowing them to apply agile principles and develop a real sense of product ownership.
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On-the-Job Mentoring: We provided ongoing mentorship to product managers, guiding them through their first product iterations. This involved weekly one-on-one sessions, where we reviewed progress, helped resolve blockers, and coached them on long-term strategy execution.
4. Implementing Product Metrics and KPIs:
To ensure measurable outcomes, ExoLuz introduced a comprehensive metrics system tailored to the company's new productized structure:
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Defining Success Metrics: We worked with the executive team to establish KPIs that aligned with both the company's financial goals and product health. This included metrics such as Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), churn rate, time-to-market, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and product profitability. These KPIs were then integrated into the company's business intelligence systems.
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Dashboard Development and Data Monitoring: ExoLuz collaborated with the IT department to implement real-time dashboards, allowing stakeholders to track product performance at a glance. We provided training on interpreting these dashboards to ensure teams were empowered to make data-driven decisions.
Final Results
The impact of our approach was transformative, leading to remarkable outcomes for the company:
Increased Profitability:
The company was able to formalize 5 distinct product lines within its service portfolio, each backed by a clear strategy, and prioritization framework. This clarity laid the groundwork for structured growth.
Within 12 months, the productized services generated a 23% increase in revenue, driven by a sharper focus on product-market fit and more effective product strategies.
Improved Time-to-Market:
The shift to agile processes resulted in a 31% reduction in time-to-market for new service updates and improvements, allowing the company to respond to customer demands far more efficiently than before, enabling the company to stay competitive and release updates faster than before.
Employee Empowerment:
Over 95% of the trained employees reported an increased ability to take ownership of products, and many began independently driving the vision and execution of their respective products within 6 months.
Over 20 employees successfully transitioned into product management roles, with 95% reporting higher confidence and ownership in driving product initiatives.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction:
The introduction of product metrics led to 13% faster decision-making across the organization, and product teams reported improved clarity in measuring product success, allowing for continuous refinement and optimization.
The increased agility and product focus resulted in an 18% improvement in customer satisfaction as measured by NPS, as the company was able to deliver more responsive, tailored solutions to clients.
Conclusion
ExoLuz's comprehensive, hands-on approach enabled the logistics company to transition from a service-based structure to a dynamic, product-driven organization. By introducing clear product strategies, agile processes, and upskilling their workforce, the company was able to achieve significant improvements in profitability, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
This transformation showcases the tangible benefits of productizing services, particularly in industries that rely on traditional service models, proving that adopting a product mindset can unlock new growth opportunities and drive long-term success.